Classic and Contemporary Poetry
EL GAI SABER (CHANT ROYAL), by FRANK WILMOT Poet's Biography First Line: Teach me to bleat ballades? Have I not thrown Last Line: Found lowly wisdom never found in books! Alternate Author Name(s): Maurice, Furnley Subject(s): Wisdom | ||||||||
TEACH me to bleat ballades? Have I not thrown Fits for the fawning sonneteers who owed Subsistence to their monarch? Though I've sown Harvests for barons, I have never bowed Nor curbed my rugged utterance for the king. Petrarch, Bertran of Born, all ye that cling To Art's oppressive manner, start the shy Love passion for a courtly hue-and-cry. Ye babblers in slashed hose of babbling brooks How could your prim sestinas ever vie With lowly wisdom never found in books? The rags of life hang heavy on the bone, There's blood upon the dust along the road Where I have stumbled, and the very stone Tears at me when I stagger with my load. The leathern-wristed lord goes falconing, And what cares he for the rude songs I fling Out of my mirthless soul? He loves the sly Rhyme-conjurers who tickle words and die. We are immortal; damn their scornful looks! Royal, immortal, we who glorify The lowly wisdom never found in books. Songs of my people, your uncourtly tone Is drawn from mother-rhymes and the grim goad Of poverty -- the chained hound's kennel moan. And must I find a jewel in the toad? Unto my lord a churl's obeisance bring And charm his ennui with sweet ballading? Or soil my churlish music with the sigh Of some dame grieving that her cheeks are dry? No! I shall sing the beggars and the cooks, And learn, where slatterns kiss and pantlers pry, The lowly wisdom never found in books. Taunt me for lacking arts I should have known! I have known hunger well, and death's abode; Therefore, I sing the habits of my own In troubled light that simple vision showed. The belted baron, lording everything, Shall not command me courteously to sing To pretty musics with such grace whereby I shall put tears upon his lady's eye, And ballad while she simpers 'mid the dukes. Their courtly lore would lead dear Christ awry; O! lowly wisdom, never found in books! When I walked out I always walked alone, And when I sang I sang as my love flowed; Could I have tuned my folk-songs to his drone, And followed with his clowns when my lord rode Abroad to ceremonial tourneying? Brown squirrels scamper joyfully, the wing Of a scared robin brushes past: the high Mountains have torn their cloud-wreaths from the sky; There swoop the eagles, quarrel here the rooks; All these spell faith and the full sanctity Of lowly wisdom never found in books. See, here's an extra stanza; Poets, I loan Your regal chant to curse in. I explode My venom over dolts whose wits have grown Too thick to comprehend a deeper mode! Go, preen the quills for your lord's welcoming And when you bow obeisance, may he wring Your dirty necks, and toss you to the sty (Which God alone knows how you left and why), And there you'll learn, plucked from your ingle nooks, That none may without penalty deny The lowly wisdom never found in books. Envoi Majestic maggots! Peers of verse who ply A delicate trade of satined symmetry! O preening peacocks, I sing pruning hooks! I went with God among the ditchers -- I Found lowly wisdom never found in books! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOPE IS NOT FOR THE WISE by ROBINSON JEFFERS SEVEN TWILIGHTS: 5 by CONRAD AIKEN SONG: NOW THAT SHE IS HERE; FOR JOE-ANNE by HAYDEN CARRUTH WISE: HAVING THE ABILITY TO PERCEIVE AND ADOPT THE BEST by LUCILLE CLIFTON WISDOM COMETH WITH THE YEARS by COUNTEE CULLEN FOR RANDALL JARRELL, 1914-1965 by NORMAN DUBIE THE MORTAL WORDS OF ZWEIK by PHILIP LEVINE |
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